Chapter 41: Ranking

After seeing Gu Xiqiao’s figure disappear up the stairs, Wu Hongwen stopped smiling and raised an eyebrow at Zhong Yongsi. “What, do you wanna fight?”

“No… Just tell her that I’m sorry.” Zhong Yongsi’s gaze cast to the ground, his tone embarrassed.

“Pfft…” Wu Hongwen swung his backpack onto his back and sneered at him. “Save it, she doesn’t need it!!”

He was initially angry at Zhong Yongsi, but he wasn’t the type to stab people in the back nor to take revenge, so he started to look for another way to help Gu Xiqiao out through the media later on. Before he could find a way to help, Gu Xiqiao herself seemed to have dealt with the problem, and if anything, the one in trouble now was Gu Xijin!

He wasn’t going to do anything more, but apologizing on Zhong Yongsi’s behalf? Dream on!

Seeing Wu Hongwen leave, Zhong Yongsi’s grip on his canvas tightened, before he walked towards the school art studio.

When Gu Xiqiao reached her class, her classmates were huddled at the podium. Every class teacher had gotten the report cards for their classes that morning, and Old Ban put it on the podium for everyone to see. As the students of the Parallel Class looked at it, they all didn’t know how to react.

The student that had the first place was naturally Gu Xiqiao, but her ranking in their grade was also the first place…

The first place in the entire grade?

In First City High, the Parallel Class had been historically the worst in terms of grades so they always got the least resources out of all the classes. The best teachers were sent to the other classes, and even their exam papers were slightly easier than average.

Back when there was news that a transfer student that was rumored to have had terrible grades, none of the other classes wanted her, so Gu Xiqiao was sent to the Parallel Class.

Now, this student got the best results in the school, even winning against the genius exam robot Luo Wenlang!

All of a sudden, everyone’s attention was gathered onto Gu Xiqiao.

“You got the first place in the entire school…” Xiao Yun was quite surprised too. Even though she knew that Gu Xiqiao was smart, she didn’t know that she was so smart that she could obtain near-perfect scores across the board. “How did you do it?”

Gu Xiqiao got to her seat and took out her books, flipping one open. “It’s not that much of a big deal, no need for the fuss.”

Gu Xiqiao’s English was so bad in her past life that she only got into B University because of her maths, but she had spent an entire lifetime studying, so it wasn’t strange that she obtained such a result.

“Gosh, are you being serious?” Xiao Yun looked at her own maths papers, before looking at the marks of the other classmates. “You can get full marks on this insanely hard paper?”

Xiao Yun had been proud of her maths in the past, but this pride of hers had been shattered as she started sitting next to Gu Xiqiao. She had already estimated that Gu Xiqiao would be able to get high marks, but she didn’t expect her to get full marks!

“Everyone improved this time around.” Gu Xiqiao smiled at her classmates that were crowding around her seat. “Our average maths grades are only second to the Rocket Class, so this is definitely a great improvement. Let’s continue with the good work until the finals come around!”

“You’re so smart it’s scary, Gu Xiqiao. Not only can you learn everything quickly, but you can also teach it better than most of our teachers too!” The class monitor squeezed into the crowd. “Sometimes I don’t even think you’re a human when I see the way you solve questions, it’s like you’re a supercomputer!”

“Yes yes…” The girl that sat behind Gu Xiqiao nodded in agreement. “Whenever I ask her about physics questions, she would reply with a single glance and get it right! I couldn’t even solve it in hours, do you know how much it shocked me?!”

“Hey, are you bragging that you can ask her questions whenever you want? I even have to bribe the person that was going to ask her a question first before I could even ask her for help! Burn, you showoff!”

“…” The class monitor waved his hand in the air, seeing the conversation starting to get out of hand. “Cut it out, guys! I’m going to treat everyone to skewers in celebration of our improvement, and of course to congratulate our Beauty Gu for getting first place!”

The average marks of the Parallel Class had increased by a whopping thirty-five marks, and was such an extreme improvement that even Old Ban didn’t believe it at first! Even though they were still weaker than the Rocket Class, but they could already be compared with the Experiment Class.

Ever since the grades came out, the disciplinary had accused the class of cheating, and even the other students in First City high thought so too. The first place in school was in their class after all, so it was probably quite easy to cheat.

The students of the Parallel Class didn’t mind all that much because they could prove themselves on the actual national finals, no?

They weren’t all that confident in themselves, but they had a borderline religious belief in Gu Xiqiao.

When lunch break came around, the Parallel Class had a barbecue party at a stall near the school, and Wu Hongwen shamelessly joined the party even though he wasn’t in the same class as them. “Hey, can anyone give me a grilled fish…Hey, Xiao Yun, can you…Fine, I’ll have grilled veggies instead!”

“You know.” Gu Xiqiao nibbled on her food slowly. “You resemble a puppy without a muzzle.”

“…” Wu Hongwen squinted at this statement of hers before his expression turned into one of awe. “Enough about that, do you know how scary it is that you surpassed that Luo Wenlang? Let me tell you, a professional tested his IQ back when we were in middle school, and they said that it was 155, which was the highest that had ever appeared in Hua Xia! For some reason, no one ever sponsored him…But that’s not the point, the point is that you surpassed his grades, which means that your IQ is definitely at least 155, and even higher!”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with IQ, it’s mostly because you’re dumb…” Gu Xiqiao glanced at him before finishing her food and getting ready to leave. “I have something to attend to, so I’ll be leaving first. Have fun, yeah?”

She and Mu Zong had planned to meet that day, and as she thought of this she reached for her backpack that held the plans that she made for Mu Zong in the virtual space the day before.

Gu Xiqiao was already gifted in finance, and she had a decade’s worth of foresight, so if she were to get involved in the market… It would definitely be much more incredible than getting a measly first place!

The place where they chose to meet was quite far away from the school, so Mu Zong had already been waiting for her when she arrived.

“Where’s Tong Tong?” Gu Xiqiao sat down across him.

“Her immune system is too weak, so she’s still in quarantine.” Mu Zong was barely thirty years old himself and was at the age where he was supposed to show his skills, but he was unfortunately scammed of all his efforts over the last decade. His daughter suddenly became chronically sick, and his wife eloped with his money, and his employees left too, leaving him with nothing than his skills and an empty husk of a company.

After experiencing so many life-changing events, he had already learned who to trust and who not to, and he was moved by Gu Xiqiao’s words from before. He was a smart man, and a meticulous organizer, and finally someone who knew how to take hold of any chances he was given.

Somehow, he felt as if this young girl in front of him was the key to break this stalemate that he was stuck in.